The Many Faces of Anna Blair Summers

First off, how great is this picture of Anna and Stephen?!
So on Mother's Day we went and had lunch with my parents at their house. Dad grilled steaks and Stephen made the sides. We had a nice time but later in the afternoon Stephen had to go to work and Anna and I stayed behind to hang out with my mom and dad for a little longer. While we were there Anna was wanting something or other, can't remember what, and she was making her normal, "I want this but can't get to it" frustrated face. Mom said, " Anna, you are going to give yourself wrinkles." Then said to me, "she makes the funniest expressions." This got me thinking and I started to look back at the photos we have of some of these expressions. So I present, the various expressions of Miss Anna Blair. Get ready, some are pretty hysterical.I love my daddy.

This is the face she makes when we pray. She doesn't like closing her eyes. So she kind of squints them. She also uses this when we ask to look at her eyes or clean her eyes.
Very happy to get something she wants.

She does this shifty thing with her eyes when she is doing something she isn't supposed to, like putting 8 orange slices in her mouth at once.

A very a dramatic bye bye.

I have NO clue. But it sure looks funny.

This is her normal face when she isn't happy or sad, just hanging out. Such a sweet girl.

How's that for expressive? That is what happens when we don't get what we want.

Sweet smile you get when playing games like hide and seek.

Forced smile. She almost grits her teeth she bites down so hard. Cheese ball.

So this is the scary Anna smile. I almost hear a maniacal laugh .

Oohh! Excitement and shock. This is one of my favorites.

This is the frustrated look I was talking about earlier that is going to give her wrinkles. : )

By far my favorite expressive pic to date. She doesn't even look like the same kid. Her teeth CRACK me up in this pic. She, Dave Letterman and Madonna have the same look going. She does NOT like to have her picture taken sometimes. She puts her hand up and says no and makes this face.
Well, I hope all is well with yours and that you have a great weekend!

A powerful experience...

Today Stephen had to work a double, and his mother was very generous and came to watch Anna so that my mom and I could go out to eat and catch a traveling exhibition that is currently in town. She saw an article or advertisement in the paper about the show, and asked if I would want to go. I was all for it. We went to eat at Hester's, a little sandwich shop on the backside of a cute antique shop near six points. It was nice, I got a southwestern Cesar salad, that was YUMDIDY with guacamole and sun-dried tomatoes. I ran into an old friend, Jill Baugher, and her mother, out for a daughters and mothers family day filled with good food, pedicures and manicures. We had a very nice lunch, and just enjoyed the time for a while.

Then we went to the photo gallery on People's street to see the exhibition. It is a smaller gallery, but very nice. The show they are currently hosting for the next two months is called "Eyes from the Ashes" a collection of photographs from Ann Weiss. Ann Weiss is not the photographer of the collection, however, the author of a book in which she shares these photographs that she mistakenly found while taking a tour at the Auschwitz-Birkeneau concentration camps in 1986. The photographs were not supposed to be seen. These 2400 photos were images brought to the camps by the prisoners in hopes of holding onto an image of a loved one or a time when things were better. Personal items such as photographs were confiscated by the Nazi soldiers at every camp and shipped to a crematorium at another location to be destroyed. Apparently it was important to Hitler to not only destroy the people themselves, but their spirit and memories along with every bit of evidence that claimed they ever existed. Somehow, the photos confiscated at Auschwitz-Birkeneau were saved and lie in a room for 40 years until Ann Weiss found them with the help of a museum worker and his golden key.
My mother and I had the pleasure of speaking with Ann Weiss this afternoon and heard stories that would bring tears to your eyes. At one point, I did get emotional. Her sacrifice to travel and share these photographs, 2400 that remain out of millions that once existed, to cities across the US, Europe and even to Israel has healed many wounds, and had many people reunited with pictures of loved ones that they thought they would never see again. It truly is an amazing and powerful experience. She has a website and I encourage you to check it out. She also has a book that has most of the images in it with stories of these people and who they were before the evil that came and took it all away. I sat and read about it this evening and am all the more moved.

Ann is a wonderful lady with a huge heart for her people. We ended up spending a good two hours with her and I truly enjoyed every minute of it. It is an experience that I will remember for the rest of my life. The show was completely free to the public and she is supported solely by donations. If you are in the place to donate, I feel compelled to ask you to think about doing just that. It is history. I read today at the show that Hitler knew that to destroy a people group it was important to take out two groups first, the old and the young. The old to kill the wisdom, the past. The young to destroy any hope of a future. In reading that I wanted desperately to help this woman give the joy of memories to anyone who was still living. To help one person see a loved one that they thought would only be seen in their dreams. One man wrote after finding a photo of his first wife and child who had perished at Auschwitz, " I could show my family, THAT is who I was, THAT is where I came from! It was my revenge on Hitler!" I hope you all have a wonderful week and hope you find time to visit this website and see the beautiful pictures of a beautiful people who were snuffed out by such a terrible force.

Oh yes, our daughter is a genius, or an artist, or ....is having visions

Don't get all bent out of shape with the visions thing, it was a joke. Once you see the picture Anna drew lately you will see my point. She drew this at school and with no help mind you. What do you see? I know...I know, it is all just a bunch of lines here and there. But if you look for content, you will see the right side of her brain must have been working over time. We saw an angel wearing a scarf serving up some sort of dish that is flying off the plate. Or it could be a release of a dove with a halo or something...the jury is still out. Either way, we thought it was cool. At least I did...my kid is going to grow up to draw pretty pictures. : ) Or maybe she won't....and that is ok with me. I periodically see those parents on "The Soup" where they show clips from Show Biz Moms and Dads..and it puts me in check...those people are NUTS! : )

Anyway, so we went down to my parents house for Parker's birthday. Parker is my brother Jered's son. He is SO precious and hysterically opposite of Anna in every way. I absolutely love it. He weighs about 5 pounds but he is all boy, super into trucks and wheels, very independent and itty bitty in the cutest way. He hates to be away from mom, but the minute you catch his attention with something, he is all yours...which makes it all the sweeter. I like to win over attention sometimes, the challenge is nice. I think that is why I like cats. Anyway, we really enjoyed getting to see him and be there to experience his first birthday. He wanted very little to do with the cake, other than to destroy it...like I said, ALL boy. Here are some pics from the weekend.Sweet little hand full of destruction.
I love this face...he is so happy to get cleaned up...Anna would be screaming right now. Such a sweet happy boy.Can't you just hear it in the background....Bond, James Bond. Look at his eyebrow and little puckered lips...HYSTERICAL!

Anna having a good time racing down the hill courtesy of T-Ma.Uncle Judd raced her down the hill next and I just love this pic. She could model wagons. Uncle Jered is teaching her some tips on batting. This was Parker's birthday present, she couldn't wait to get her hands on it! : )


OK, these next few pictures make me happy that cameras exist. Mom and Anna on Friday evening, after playing hard outside and Anna and Dad the following day, feeding the koi fish of a neighbor down the street. They make me want to cry, because I know she will cherish these photos for the rest of her life. I know I will.
And last but not least, Anna's cheesy school pictures. She is barely smiling and isn't giving off that cute girl feel we know she is capable of. So, Stacy, this is what I was expecting, your boys pics from school are WAY cuter. I blame the photographer...not my sweet girl. Have a great week! : )

“Why does Sea World have a seafood restaurant?? I'm halfway through my fish burger and I realize, Oh my God....I could be eating a slow learner.”

Quote by Linda Montgomery...awesome.

So Stephen has been working really hard on his Salon for school. Salon is not something that involves hair. Salon is the yearly food competition where students create the most interesting and complex recipes and painstakingly work to have a killer presentation. Taste is not a factor...which I think is stupid. But what do I know. Because their menu is decided by their current "salon" class, Stephen, who is presently in Garde Manger, ( see previous post with pics of food for definitions) had to choose between cold or hot appetizers. He decided he wanted to go with hot appetizers and decided to work with shrimp. For real though...this is a serious competition. There are all sorts of rules about things looking "beautiful and attractive to eat". So the solution, (whoever came up with this really needs to rethink it in my humblest opinion) is to cover anything moist ( i.e. liquid, veggies, fruit, meat...ect.) in a gelatin film called aspic to "preserve" it's scrumptious aesthetic quality. YUK...that's all I have to say about that.

There are medals given to the highest scores and Stephen was hopeful. Unfortunately hope was not enough, although he did receive a very high score and was within 1 and half points of getting a medal. All the medals went to the desserts. The upswing was that Stephen's food became local celebrity later that evening with a newscast about the competition. Stephen's food is ALL OVER IT and I was very proud. See pics below of Stephen's food all plated up. Shrimp Nori Strudel Rolls

Shrimp Toast with Jicama Slaw

Grilled Shrimp Cocktail with Romesco Sauce

and our favorite.....Chipotle Shrimp Tostada Stacks ( doesn't that pic look like something out of Bon Appetite?!!)

Here is the video we are so proud of. : )

And just a little slide in...here are some pics from Anna recently swinging in her swing that her J-Paw made her. She loves her swing and her Daddy.There is that cheeseball grin again! Have a great week!

Memoir

At the request of my sister-in-law Holly, here is my six word memoir.

Jesus, Stephen, Anna, all I needed.


The rules: Write your own six word memoir, and post it on your blog. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to the original post, if possible, so that it can be tracked as it travels across the blogosphere. Tag at least five more blogs with links. Leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.

I tag...

Jessy, Jeremy ( cause I know you will rock this ), Kristi, Corrie L, and Candi.

And for real if you don't want to do this, I ain't mad at ya...your choice. If you are curious where this came from, check out this link....it's a book...pretty cool. Some of the memoirs are pretty sad but on the same token quite hysterical.

Beauty for ashes...

So I watched the Diane Sawyer special on the gentleman who has terminal cancer and is known world wide for his You Tube video titled "The Last Lecture." This man is an amazing professor, a phenom of a father and husband from the way they portrayed it, an all around awesome human being and he is going to die in give or take two months. I sat watching this program wanting to know why on earth the good Lord would allow this man to be taken from us, knowing all the good he could do, while the drug dealer on the corner would probably live to be 100. I know that sounds cynical, but it is hard not to be when you see a story like this one. The end of the program brought some clarity for me. There were about 2 dozen people who gave interviews or wrote letters talking about how this video had completely changed their lives. (The video was actually only recorded because there were some family members who were not able to attend the lecture). The video has had over 15 million hits. One woman wrote that she had thought of taking her own life 10 days ago and since seeing his lecture, is thankful for every breath she is given. That 2 dozen was just the tip of the iceberg in the masses he has reached with this lecture. The scripture came to me, and I was very much happy with God's answer to my question. Romans 8:28...and we know in all things God works for the good....
As I am watching this, Stephen is in the other room talking to his sister. This is how the story goes.
Karen ( Stephen's sister ) has a friend named Marcus. Marcus' brother Nick was diagnosed with a brain tumor in November of 05. He was 29 years old with a sweet young family. He had surgery and things looked good. The next October, it had returned and things did not look so good. He passed away two months later in December. His family, obviously devastated, decided they wanted to raise money to fund a research grant in Nick's name. Apparently this tumor is the most common brain tumor that afflicts young people, including children. Nick, prior to his death, had traveled to Italy with his wife and some friends and they had a wonderful time. A friend (I believe...it may have been a family member) purchased a trip to Italy to honor Nick and raffle off to raise money in order to fund this research grant. Karen (my sister-in-law) purchased some of these tickets. And oh yeah, you know what I am going to say, she won it. She, being the AWESOME person she is, has traveled quite a bit, and has lots of frequent flyer miles. So, she would not have to buy a ticket to Italy....and the trip is payed for two....and the stay is in a villa with two rooms....SO WE ARE GETTING TO GO TO ITALY! WOO HOO! All we will have to pay is sight seeing and food. AMAZING! I am SO pumped I cannot even explain. I have wanted to travel to Italy since I fell in love with Renaissance art in my art history classes freshman year of college. Karen is an amazing person for giving this gift to us. We would not be able to afford this in a million years...or at least till we were retired. Of course Stephen is so excited about the culinary opportunity in traveling to that part of the world...the food is crazy amazing. Needless to say we are overwhelmed and SO excited. Have a great week!

This picture was taken on my way to work...even though the quality isn't that great ( camera phone ), you can see how amazing that sunrise was. God was definitly shining that morning.

Examples and responsibility.....

Anna has been pretty sick again lately. She got another ear infection Easter weekend and we have been trying to re coop. In the midst of that, she got a virus, probably from the stupid playground...oh well. Anyway, she has been home mostly this week and today I was taking her with me to Rockport so my mother-in-law could watch her at the vacation house. As we were driving, I was putting on my makeup, yeah yeah I know...but I was running late, so back off. Anyway, as I was putting on my makeup I saw her in the rear view mirror mimicking me. She was rubbing her face like I was...she was doing what I was doing. It hit me like a ton O bricks that she is emulating me, that everything I do, she will want to do it too. SCARY. I mean she has copied me before, but I guess it took her doing a female thing for me to realize that I have a different role than Stephen. She is going to look to me for knowledge on how to be a woman. That is an EXTREMELY overwhelming feeling just in case you were wondering.

So, I stopped putting on my makeup and prayed for some strength and guidance. I want to do the best job by letting Jesus be her example and letting Him make me the best woman I can be and by proxy teaching Anna to be the best woman she can be. It is a huge responsibility and I don't want to look back years from now and see the sins I have passed down to her, but the blessings God has bestowed upon her because of my obedience to Him. Anyway, thought I would share that....it was a pretty heavy 40 minutes to work this morning, but WAY worth the lesson He shared with me.

SO, on another note that is kind of in line with this post, talking about responsibility and all... Not to get too political, but I saw this today and was a little frightened. I am not sure about the connection with Obama, but the stuff that comes straight from the horses mouth is pretty scary. My mom sent this to me in an email titled, "what do YOU think?"

And I am asking the same question, out of curiosity....so if you feel like it, let me know...
http://heartofflesh.wordpress.com/2008/03/27/the-church-of-oprah-exposed/

Have a great week!

Playgrounds and Horses....

As Anna gets older, we have really enjoyed each new adventure with her. She is now, as I said in the previous post, really stretching her new found Independence. We have been frequenting playgrounds a lot more now that she can walk up the stairs and go down the slide by herself. We went to the private school playground that is across the street from our house (which rocks!..no pun intended ) and took some pictures with Granny's camera before I had to take it back the next day.

It looks like she was flying down that slide...she was actually still! The wind was blowing really hard and she was laughing!

Having fun riding the see-saw horses.

Down the slide on her belly backwards, smiling at mommy.

Okay, she LOVES rocks. She picked them up and yelled "rocks!," and Stephen captured this picture which does just that. I LOVE IT!

Here she is, giving me her rocks.

On another note, we went to my parent's house last Saturday and had dinner since we were not going to be spending Easter Sunday with them, and Anna got the chance to ride a horse. My dad has bred and broken Quarter horses as long as I can remember, and it really is a labor of love. I think he always wanted my brothers and I to share in his love of horses, but he has never said it and never forced it onto us and unfortunately we just aren't into horses as much as he is. After dinner, Dad asked if I would want him to saddle up Gabby (the calmest horse to ever live ) and see if Anna would want to ride with him. I was all about it, cause really, I just wanted to see what she would do. She is fairly wimpy about some things, so I was just curious if she would actually get on the thing. Plus, I knew it would make him happy if she was into it.

So he saddled Gabby up and we spent some time petting her before I actually handed Anna over to dad. She was a little skeptical at first, but once she was on the horse and knew she was with J-Paw, things were great. They rode for a minute, (he just walked Gabby ) and then I let Anna get down, so she could watch J-Paw run the horse. After that, he rode back over to us and I asked her if she wanted to ride again. She said, yes, and lifted up her hands to go to J-Paw. Dad beamed, and gave her a kiss and said, "You don't know how happy that makes me baby." I think more than anything, just the fact that she wasn't scared made him happy. And it made me happy too. Hope you have a great week and enjoy the pics.

Checking out the horse, while T-Ma pets her. Not too sure...

Giving her a pat. Nice and soft....not too scary.

Having a good time with J-Paw

Second ride, much more comfortable sitting on the saddle, and holding the horn.

Ode to Family and a Little Independence (LONGEST POST EVER!!)

Alright, DISCLAIMER!! I know this is long, but I can't help it...there was A LOT to say and show you!

My mother-in-law's birthday was on Friday the 21st. We decided this year we were going to celebrate Easter and the big six O birthday of Peggy Summers on the same day. : ) SO, this is my Ode to the Summers Family. They rock on so many different levels, but here are a few, please see pictures below if you don't believe me.

They love to sit around and chat about things like levers and fulcrums, amongst other things.

( no picture for proof, but if you don't believe me, ask my brother Judd, who as a science teacher, was the authority we called to settle the debate).Pat Summers, Julie Click and Sherman Click (Stephen's aunt and uncle)

Tiaras are involved in your birthday, regardless of age, and multiple people must wear it during the day.Anna and birthday granny in a pretty tiara

Kaylee sporting the tiara

Karen (Stephen's sister ) sporting the tiara

They love each other regardless and come together on holidays and special occasions for each other. (the kindness abounds!)
They like to have fun and most of the time, food, GOOD food, is involved.
Anna seemed to get really fussy once we got to Rockport (see her TOTALLY losing it in the picture with the confetti above..and Stephen's concerned look). She had a 101 temp under her arm (which means it is actually higher..apparently the armpit isn't a good gauge for internal temp). She hunted eggs and did OK once we had her all hopped up on Ibuprofen, but she wasn't her funny self. So, you can see how excited she is in these pics. LOVE the diva "don't mess with me" look.

Anyway, after being on antibiotics for a few doses she is perking up. Stephen took Monday to stay home and I stayed home today with her (her fever has to be scarce for 24 hours before she can go back to school ) and got some hysterical pics of her eating yogurt. She is in the independent stage where she wants to do everything herself. So, here she is making a mess, but, she is eating yogurt by herself. Notice the large ghetto bib. I had regular ones, but didn't think it would catch all the spillage...and man was I right. : ) My mother-in-law left her camera here so it could finish downloading pictures the other day and man was I having a ball playing around with that thing. It is amazing how much clearer a digital SLR is compared to just a regular ole' digital camera. Anyway, enjoy the pics and have a fabulous week!How sweet is that face! UH!